Re: [DSA-403-1] Kernel update?
On Wed, Dec 03, 2003 at 10:43:43AM -0500, David Z Maze wrote:
> Harshwardhan Nagaonkar <harsh@ee.byu.edu> writes:
>
> > So, does this mean that I can compile my kernel without initrd, and it
> > will still not break on debian? I understand that this will involve
> > editing /etc/lilo.conf and getting rid of the initrd line. Any other
> > gotchas that I should know about?
>
> Yes, that's right. The important thing is that you need to make sure
> the drivers for your root disk and filesystem (probably "IDE disk" and
> "ext2", but these could both be other things) are built into the
> kernel, not built as modules. Just make sure you have a LILO entry
> around to boot your old kernel if you get stuck.
So is the purpose of initrd to have a small kernel but be able to load
whatever modules might be needed for the currently running hardware?
If so I often wonder why that's needed -- that is, why not just build a
kernel with everything compiled in? If, say, installing from CD then
size of the kernel isn't critical (not to mention that the modules take
up space, too), and most machines have quite a bit of RAM these days, so
I would not think that an issue either. Which brings me back to the
point that maybe I don't really understand the need for initrd...
--
Bill Moseley
moseley@hank.org
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